Patients with operable esophageal cancer had significantly better short-term outcomes with minimally invasive versus open surgery, investigators in a multicenter European study reported.
Pulmonary infection during the first 2 weeks after surgery occurred in only a third as many patients treated with minimally invasive surgery, according to Miguel A. Cuesta, MD, of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and co-authors.
The less invasive approach was also associated with significantly less blood loss, shorter length of stay, and less pain and vocal-cord paralysis after 6 weeks, they reported online in The Lancet.